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Weatherly’s Megan Peifer goes baseline as The Christian Academy’s Lindsay Haseltine defends during their PIAA Class A first-round game Saturday at Blue Mountain High School. The Christian Academy scored the final 10 points of the game to capture a 49-43 victory over the Wreckers.

JACQUELINE DORMER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERWeatherly’s Ashley James looks for an open teammate as The Christian Academy’s Lindsay Haseltine defends during the first-round PIAA girls’ basketball game at Blue Mountain High School in Orwigsburg on Saturday afternoon, March 10, 2018.

ORWIGSBURG — For the game’s first 28-plus minutes, the Weatherly girls had things just the way they wanted Saturday in their PIAA Class A opener.

The Wreckers led The Christian School for most of the game, and were up by four points with 3:29 remaining when they began to pull back, work some clock and make their District 1 counterparts defend them.

It was at that point that the Crusaders turned the tables.

Dejah Burley-Chambers scored on a putback with 3:10 to play, igniting a game-ending, 10-0 run that gave The Christian School a 49-43 win and a spot in the second round of the state tournament.

The Crusaders (16-9) will take on Benton, a 47-31 winner over Lancaster Country Day, in Wednesday’s second-round game. Meanwhile, Weatherly’s dream season came to an abrupt halt at 16-9.

With the score tied at 39, Weatherly’s Emily Zoscin nailed her second 3-pointer of the game behind a Gillian Hinkle screen. From there, the Wreckers went to their “Rover” offense to take some air out of the ball.

“It was like we always do, we wanted to keep it in Emily’s hands. That’s our player,” Weatherly coach Kevin Kringe explained.

A minute later Zoscin hit the front end of a two-shot foul to put the Lady Wreckers up four at 43-39. It was Weatherly’s last point of the game.

Burley-Chambers, who hadn’t scored all afternoon, got the TCA rally started with her stickback. Grace Gormley hit two free throws to tie the game for a final time at 43-all, and

Burley-Chambers converted a 3-point play that put the Crusaders up 46-43 with 1:06 to play.

In the meantime, the Wreckers missed three shots on one possession, and turned the ball over four straight times to help fuel the Crusaders’ late push.

“We tried to pull back a little bit. That’s what we do when it’s rover, and when Emily has it she takes it and she makes plays. We run it as an offense,” Kringe said. “We wanted to keep it in Emily’s hands, make them chase her. It just didn’t work out in our favor this time. We just kind of turned the ball over a little bit, it was kind of our demise. And then they made some plays at the other end.”

“At that point there was still tons of time left. I was just trying to get Grace (Gormley) and Lindsay (Haseltine) to make her give it up and deny her back, and almost force her to attack rather than just dribble out the clock,” Wilt said. “Dejah made a nice steal on one of the drives, another one she dribbled out of bounds. I think we did well to maintain our composure and somehow get the ball back and take advantage.

“I don’t want them doing that up four with a minute left, but with three minutes left we had enough time to get it done.”

After Weatherly missed two more inside chances, Haseltine locked it up by going 3-of-4 at the line in the final 14 seconds.

After going 6-for-15 at the free-throw line for the first three-plus quarters, the Crusaders made six of their final seven to ice the victory.

“Free throws have been our Achilles’ heel all season. I think we’re shooting less than 40 percent as a team,” Wilt said. “It kind of helps that the right girls were on the line. Gormley did a great job to just keep knocking them down, and then Haseltine, who’s been struggling lately, it was good to see her step up and ice the game.”

Making their first state playoff appearance in more than three decades, Weatherly hardly seemed tight, opening the game with five straight points on a Megan Peifer 3-pointer and a knifing drive through the lane by Zoscin.

Five different players scored in the opening quarter for the Wreckers, who were up 14-8 at the 2:20 mark on Kate Ache’s foul-line jumper.

But the Crusaders wouldn’t let them get away, closing the quarter on their own 6-0 run that featured a steal and 3-point play by Haseltine that knotted the game at 14-14 after one.

The two teams traded baskets through the first half of the second quarter before Zoscin’s 3-point play put the Wreckers on top 21-20. Abby Hernandez scored off a Zoscin feed, and Zoscin followed with a hook shot off an offensive rebound as Weatherly took a 25-21 lead to intermission.

Weatherly grabbed its biggest lead of seven points early in the third quarter, first on Zoscin’s first 3-pointer, and then on a long Peifer swish from the corner that made it 32-25 with 4:25 on the clock.

Back came TCA, getting a 3-pointer from Haseltine and then six unanswered points from Gormley to move in front 34-32 heading to the fourth.

Weatherly surged back into the lead following Peifer’s drive, a Zoscin steal and layup, and Hoffman’s 3-pointer from the wing with 5:22 remaining. The Wreckers still led by three on Zoscin’s second 3-pointer of the game at the 4:29 mark, but never hit another basket the rest of the way.

Gormley led all scorers with 21 points and Haseltine followed with 16 for the Lady Crusaders, who turned it over 23 times but did well enough against Weatherly’s pressure to stay in the game.

“We had a couple bad ones, but that’s going to happen. Honestly I think we handled it very well with the experience we had,” Wilt said. “The District 1 champion is Jenkintown, and we’ve faced their press three times this year. Playing them made us better.”

Zoscin paced the Wreckers with 20 points, while Hoffman and Peifer added seven apiece. Peifer also grabbed seven rebounds. Hoffman and Zoscin added five boards each, Zoscin made four steals and Hoffman had three.

Kringe said he couldn’t be more proud of his team, which captured the school’s first district championship since the 1985-86 season, and took him on an unforgettable journey.

“They took me on a great ride,” he said. “I always wanted to take a team that I coached to a championship. I always dreamed the dream, and they let me live the dream. That was awesome. I was glad I got to go on that ride.”

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